handwriting of a scribe named Dubthach, but he was quite a different person from Maccu Lugir. Another poem beginning "Tara the house in which lived the son of Conn", found in the Book of Rights, and also assigned to him by O'Reilly, is there said to be the composition of Benen or Benignus. But there is a poem in the Book of Rights which is assigned to him by name. It relates to "the qualifications of the truly learned poet", and consists of thirty-two lines beginning "No one is entitled to visitation or sale of his poems". There are also three other poems of his preserved in the Book of Leinster. These have been published with a translation by O'Curry in his Manuscript Materials of Irish History. They relate to the wars and triumphs of Enna Cennselach and his son Crimthann, both kings of Leinster. That these poems were written after his conversion to Christianity appears from the following: "It was by me an oratory was first built and a stone cross". The passage of greatest interest in these poems is that in which he says: "It was I that gave judgment between Lóegaire and Patrick". The gloss on this explains: "It was upon Nuadu Derg, the son of Niall [brother of Lóegaire], who killed Odhran, Patrick's charioteer, this judgment was given". The story is told in the introduction to the Senchus Mor, By order of Lóegaire, Odhran, one of St. Patrick's followers, was killed by Nuadu in order to try whether the saint would carry out his own teaching of forgiveness of injuries. St. Patrick appealing for redress was permitted to choose a judge, and selected Dubthach, who found himself in a difficult position as a Christian administering a pagan law. "Patrick then (quoting St. Matthew 10:20) blessed his mouth and the grace of the Holy Ghost alighted on his utterance", and he pronounced, in a short poem which is preserved in the Senchus Mor, the decision that "Nuadu should be put to death for his crime, but his soul should be pardoned and sent to heaven". This (it is stated) was "a middle course between forgiveness and retaliation". After this sentence "Patrick requested the men of Ireland" to come to one place to hold a conference with him. The result was the appointment of a committee of nine to revise the laws. It was composed of three kings,